Asian grooming gang made two vulnerable girls in Rochdale ‘sex slaves’ after preying on them from age of 13, court told
TWO vulnerable teen girls were made "sex slaves" by an Asian grooming gang who preyed on them from the age of 13, a court heard.
The complainants were allegedly "passed around" by the eight men after being targeted in Rochdale, Greater Manchester.
Jurors heard they were "susceptible to the advances" of the gang due their ";troubled backgrounds".
From the age of 13, the defendants allegedly plied the girls with alcohol, cigarettes and drugs.
During a five year campaign, they raped and sexually abused the teens in "filthy flats and on rancid mattresses", it is said.
Manchester Minshull Street Court was told the girls were raped also in car parks, alleyways and disused warehouses "whenever these men wanted it".
Prosecutor Rossano Scamardella KC said: "Their treatment at the hands of these predators was appalling.
"They were children passed around for sex, abused, degraded and then discarded.
"That it was the two of them that were exploited in this way was not by chance."
Jurors were told the girls became "sex slaves" and were expected to answer calls from the men at any time day and night.
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The defendants would allegedly have unprotected sex with them - claiming it was "forbidden for Muslim men to use protection".
Ms Scamardella continued: "These men preyed upon those vulnerabilities for their own perverted sexual gratification in the most humiliating and degrading way imaginable.
"Over time it is perhaps easy to see how they became beholden to men who, for the first time in their lives, treated them properly and gave them the attention they so desperately craved.
"But that was to quickly change, and drastically so."
The court heard both girls were known to the authorities and had ";deeply troubled home lives".
As a result, they were "easy prey" for the gang to exploit, it was said.
The alleged sexual offences, said to be committed between 2001 and 2006, include rape, indecent assault and indecency with a child.
The defendants are Mohammed Zahid, 64, Naheem Akram, 48, Mohammed Shazad, 43, Nisar Hussain, 43, Roheez Khan, 39, Arfan Khan, 40, Mushtaq Ahmed, 66, and Kasir Bashir, 50.
All eight men have denied the charges and the trial continues.
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It comes after Labour refused to launch a statutory national inquiry in grooming gangs despite pressure from the Tories, Reform and Elon Musk.
Sir Keir Starmer has insisted victims want action now, rather than another drawn-out inquiry from the government.
